It’s been 3 months since my last post so hopefully this makes up for my absence!
It’s always been a dream of mine to create an animated short, and with this year’s Blender film festival close by I couldn’t think of a better time.
So without further ado I present, The Ballad of the M4 Carbine:
The M4 Carbine has been the weapon of choice for US soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001, and is still used today. The meaning of the film is open to interpretation, but I’ve always found an interest with the war in the middle east and our involvement with it. I wanted the film to be politically evocative, yet aesthetically pleasing and enjoyable to watch.
From start to finish the film took approximately 4 months to complete in between working a full-time job. It was rendered in 720p HD and took an average of 2 minutes to render each frame.
Plus as a bonus for being a Blender Guru reader, I’m giving you the M4 Carbine model free. This includes all materials, textures, node setups, bullet shells, muzzle flashes, tracers and smoke effects from the short.
Feel free to use the files for all non-commercial purposes. Enjoy!
Stay tuned next week when I fly to Amsterdam and report on all the important news from the 2009 Blender Conference!
Hi! I love to check by your site to follow your tutorials. Been quiet for awhile here but now I see why! What a comeback!! Love everything with this short! (except the main use of these weapons in real life) You master the art of directing as well as all the 3d stuff!
Regards,
ezpRado
Hello !
I like the short a lot !… love the direction, the music, the form and the composition…
my fav. part: when they start shooting and the music clashes with the sound of the trigger and then the paper gets torn appart.. quite realistic…
I love it, you definately managed to convey the strength of the theme!
Great animation, i’m not sure to catch all the meaning…
However, great camera traveling, modeling texture, compositing…
Definitly a blenderguru!
wow! Truly powerful piece of work. More vids like this need to be made to show off what can really be done with Blender. I get the feeling you might be walking away with a dancing monkey. Worth the months of no posts, I’d say for sure.
ssoooOOOooo. thinking maybe this mighta give’n you a few new subjects for tuts. wink wink nudge nudge
cheers
Great work Andrew… as always !
Very interesting ambiance, and good sound track too !
Congratulations.
omg!! Amazing modeling texturing and everything O.o
And good music I love that band of horses’ song…
A tutorial would be awesome
Well keep up the good work!
Greetings from Spain!
Amazing animation!! Perfect music. And thanks for sharing, already downloading.
Wow… I felt so sad i almost got a tear in my eye… I really like that you had the three rifles focus one target. At first i didn’t realize it.
Your skills are amazing dude. I’m sure you will win. Well, maybe the political statement will ruin it for you, but that has nothing to do with the quality of your short. Camera rocked, lighting rocked, music fitted so well, composition rocked as well…
Whether you win or not, you made some people think for a minute
Some people need it with a sledgehammer though… Or a M4 Carbine perhaps.
you made my evening.
Best of luck, here from Denmark.
wow! amazing! I love the camera effects with the blur on super close up shots of the gun!
For a second I thought you had abandoned your site, but you came back with this and it was amazing!!
An inspirational and very entertaining video!
agreed. you made my evening.
The was awesome. i really like the scenes. Very nice work on the gun animations.
Very nice, excellent work.
I admit, though, I was expecting a musical retelling of the story of Carbine Williams.
Hey Andrew:)
)…
first of ….great animation and amazing model:) gotta love the band of horses song too (..tho it blew so big since that other guys trial biking video
i really admire all your blenducation and your works
and as the others I’m very happy to see your still live and kickin it with blender !!! Thanks for all the dedication and skill u put in and that you sharing with the community.
I really appreciate the .blend that u put up with this, it makes me super proud of being a blenderguru fan
YOU OWN!!!
@ kyraneth
your name reminds me of the good ol times within the elder scrolls! (my fav. rpg since ever!!!)
i watched it multiple times now and its absolutely great theres lots of stuff wich u find each time watching it..may it be effects color or the camera focus etc..
this is awesome!!!!
#good luck and tons of fun for your time in amsterdam, i hope you enjoy the conference and will find some time to relax and enjoy the city aswell:)
best regards!
Very cool video. I don’t think can figure out what it means though.
What’s with the “Made in Israel” stamp?
Great video, I blogged about it!
Hey! I really wish there were posts like this one more often. Great work! And thanks for sharing!
Hey I saw this a while ago on blendernation. love it
awesome, good lighting.
Nice work.
I really like the feel of the renders- not photo real, but crisper than reality looks.
Perhaps you could do a write up of your render set-up- lighting, nodes, etc.
It is very atmospheric and, though it is abstract to the point of ineffability, it does make a point and, no pun intended, a strong impact.
The only changes I would have made would have been to reduce the flickering effect of the flares a bit and to have tweaked the flag materials to look less stiff.
Thank you for the .blend file. You create and share in the true spirit of open source and creative commons. Thank you for your contribution to education by sharing your experience and expertise.
awsome
great animation, concept and the message was right on the button. I was kinda “In awe” for about 30 seconds!
Thanks a lot mate
AMAZING!
Stuff like this keep me going. Great job.
Thanks Frank! Glad you liked it
Keep making art!
Great !
People like you keep Blender community growing, I can only say thanks
I also wondered about the relative silence on BlenderGuru. Now I get it. It was well worth it. Impressive work.
Cite(vykelt): “More vids like this need to be made to show off what can really be done with Blender.”
Rephrase(myself): “More vids like this need to be made to shake and wake people up. And to show off what Blender is capable of.
Thumbs up.
Really, a stunning video. Fantastic modeling, incredible textures, I love the choice of music. All in all, job well done.
Dred I am new to the this blender stuff, a newbies as you guys say, but this was really exciting!!!!!!!
fuck fuck fuck u!!! they kill children with this weapon !!!!!! u fucking …..
WOW! i wish i could make animations like this. you are the best ive seen ever!
impressive,
the only negative comments are either from towelheads extremists and their sympathizers
Just amazing! Very awesome animation!
How did you do the muzzle flash?
Very cool video. Especially liked the bullets tearing out bits of the target and then raising dust behind it. Must have taken a b**** of a time to render.
Great work and nice movie !!!! I love to use M4 in Call of Duty MP game. Keep a good work and give us more tutorials !!!!!
i love band of horses and i love your short
Beautiful video, what song was it?
Please make more and I am new to this site, but if you haven’t post some tutorials! If you have, I’m off to explore!
Extremely well modeled!!! so impressed. would love to see a tutorial on it. keep up the good work and thnx´s for all the tutorials so far.
The bullets tearing through the target was.. well, i dont know … how did you do that?
dont mean to spam, but that one shot where the camera is “travelling” along the R.I.S and then focus shifts towards the aim, that is brilliant!!! extremely good work mate!!!!!!!!!!!
Don’t mean to be a hater but, kinda insulted to see only the American, British and Australian flags up there. Not that I’m really proud of it but, our soldiers here in Canada are usually the ones to come in and clean things up, keeping peace. I could see if we were some minor role, skipping over us but we’ve committed several thousand troops over the years, several times what Australia has committed. Anyway just my 2 cents, looks good, like I said not really trying to be a hater and not too proud that my country is a yes man to the united states but that doesn’t change the fact that thousands of Canadian lives have been out in those streets dying too.
Dude, that’s beautiful, when i have see this video, i want to cry. Awesome…
Hi can you make a tut about the nozzel flame.
quz i want to make a sniper shoot whit flame
That is absolutely incredible, I could never even hope to do anything as good as this. It’s great to see exactly what Blender should be used for
I just recently started watching many of your tutorials and I must say that I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them so far. I am curious whether or not you are planning on doing a tutorial on modeling guns. My personal favorite would be the H&K G36, but I think any tutorial that you did on modeling a gun would be awesome.
My God, it’s great. And i too love Band of horses
. Continue in the same spirit 
You are a freak at Blender but seriously what is wrong with you lip?
lol huge ass clip
not mine,,, the only good stuff is the music. Sorry – nothing else.
The gloryfication of war, weapons and force is enticing some people (of course sick people) to go on Island to shoot young teenagers and others.
So, be concentrate to creating really aesthetical and valuable things to bring us all in the right direction…